Certainly YOU will reap the consequences of your own foolish personal financial decisions if you make them... Congress won't come to YOUR rescue because you are such a great person. What have these bumbling idiots done that they deserve to be deprived of the consequences of their actions?

Bankers made loans to people without doing basic math regarding the ability to pay it back.

Investment companies sold mortgage backed securities as "sure things" on the open market KNOWING that all past lending standards that made MBS a good investment had been completely obliterated and that the real estate market was nothing but a ponzi scheme.

Realtwhores were sharks in a feeding frenzy without a brain among them. They wrote books about the boom never ending. They told lies about how only fools paid off their mortgage. They took out ads claiming: "No Bubble" They posted signs in their realtwhore office windows saying... "What Bubble?"

They had a decade long kool-aid party.

Their favorite mantras..."hurry, buy now before you are priced out forever.""They aren't making anymore land.""Hurry, bid higher fool! there are multiple bids, who cares if you can't afford it, we can always sell it to someone else."

As far as I am concerned the only viable bail out financing is to take 1/3 of the commissions paid to investment bankers for the last 8 years or the equivalent in overpriced assets they have acquired, and 1/3 of all the realtwhore commissions for the last 8 years and 1/3 of all the mortgage lender commissions from all lenders who have had to buy back the loans they sold until this debacle is paid off.

"Americans’ anger is in full bloom, jumping off the screen in capital letters and exclamation points, in the e-mail in-boxes of elected representatives in the nation’s capital."

"The backlash, in phone calls as well as e-mail messages, is putting lawmakers in a quandary as they weigh what many regard as the most consequential decision of their careers: whether to agree to President Bush’s request to spend an estimated $700 billion in taxpayer money to rescue the financial services system."

"Around the country, Republican and Democratic voters are rising up in outright opposition to the White House plan or, at the very least, to express concern that it is being pushed through Congress in haste."

'“I am hoping Congress can find the backbone to stand on their feet and not their knees before BIG BUSINESS,” one correspondent wrote to Representative Jim McDermott of Washington."

"Mr. McDermott is a liberal Democrat, but his e-mail messages look a lot like the ones that Representative Candice S. Miller, a conservative Republican from Michigan, is receiving. “NO BAILOUT, I am a registered republican,” one constituent wrote. “I will vote and campaign hard against you if we have to subsidize the very people that have sold out MY COUNTRY.”'

"Senator Barbara Boxer, Democrat of California, has received nearly 17,000 e-mail messages, nearly all opposed to the bailout, her office said. More than 2,000 constituents called Ms. Boxer’s California office on Tuesday alone; just 40 favored the bailout. Her Washington office received 918 calls. Just one supported the rescue plan."

"“We certainly have never brought in 20,000 names in a day and a half,” Mr. Sanders said, sounding astonished. “For us, that’s off the wall.”'

"It is much the same on the Republican side. Aides to Senator Jim Bunning, a Kentucky Republican who has called the bailout plan “un-American,” said the senator had received more constituent reaction to the bailout plan than to any issue since the immigration debate."

Why should responsible Americans beforced to pay for the mistakes of others?

* A bailout is morally irresponsible because it encourages reckless and irrational behavior. Here is a short list of the many "moral hazards" that a bailout enables:

* A bailout sends the wrong message about personal responsibility. It tells Americans in no uncertain terms that their financial decisions have no consequences; the government will pick up the tab.

* A bailout tells responsible Americans that they are suckers. If responsible American had been smart, they would have overextended themselves, purchased homes they could not afford, and taken out home equity loans based on the paper value of their property. Then, when the bill came due, they could just pass it to the government.

* A bailout allows banks, mortgage brokers, speculators, and refinancers to benefit from their abuse of the system. By doing so, it encourages these people to act irresponsibly in the future.

* A bailout will force Americans who acted responsibly to pay for those who did not. The average American -- who saved and scrimped for years to buy a house, but could not because speculators and over-extenders boosted home prices beyond affordability -- will now be forced to pay for the homes of those who were less scrupulous.

* A bailout will have a disproportionately negative affect on the minorities and the youth. Minorities and Americans under 35 (scroll down the link for 2007 data) are disproportionately underrepresented among homeowners. While non-hispanic whites enjoy a 75% homeownership rate, less than 50% of blacks and hispanics own homes. Similarly, only 42% of Americans under 35 own homes, compared to 80% for Americans 55 and older.

* A government bailout will perpetuate this race and generation gap by propping-up inflated house prices, thereby permanently pricing minorities and a generation of youth out of the market. And in a Kafkaesque irony, these folks will actually have to pay to prevent themselves from buying homes (i.e., taxes).

* A bailout is also fiscally irresponsible:

* A bailout props up over-inflated housing prices, thereby putting homeownership out of reach for young families and responsible Americans who recognized that there was a bubble. The housing market needs the correction that the bailout seeks to prevent because the average American cannot afford to purchase a home. "You cannot be both in favor of affordable housing and in favor of propping up home prices!"

* A bailout creates perverse incentives. Rather than punishing their behavior, it encourages fiscal irresponsibility among bankers, brokers, speculators, and refinancers. These folks made money hand over fist in the past nine years (remember, homeborrowers who tapped their home equity received cash money to pay for Escalades, vacations, and stainless steel appliances; now they want you to pay for it!). Why change your behavior when you benefit from it?

* A bailout shifts the risks of falling market prices from financially secure banks to the American taxpayer. As a result, either taxes or the federal deficit will skyrocket! This is a government handout that we simply cannot afford and, moreover, it is wrong!

* A bailout is contrary to the free market principles upon which our economy is based. It jams a huge wrench into the market correction, with negative effects that will be both severe and long-term.

* It will truly be a sad day in America when our politicians vote to bail out the few from their irresponsibility to the detriment of the many who were responsible.

2 Comments:

In Santa Rosa at 6;20 PM there were 40 protesters.lots of honking and waving by people driving by.One thing people don't mention much is that if this bill is passed it will do nothing to add liquidity to the market.WF had the best rate i saw today on prime jumbo's,9.2% and it is not going down,home prices are.You want liquidity? remove the FICA tax from anyone making less than $50K a year.The Banks will take that $350 BILLION and lever up 10x to speculate in commodities.$300 a barrel oil anyone?